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Heirs of the Crown [Spanish Inquisition]

[a crown upon which is drawn the Seal of Asmodai, and beneath it is written in Hebrew "Solomon's Wisdom"]

The Keys of Hell

I invoke thee, oh Bornless one! King Paimon, the 9th Seal bound to the Crown, ruler upon two hundred legions of Hell!!

King Solomon was the wisest among men. He answered all the riddles the Queen of Sheba asked. He knew the language of all which was alive and spoke with all beasts. He commanded the elements of the world and forced any spirit to his will...

And he bound demons too.

Asmodai. Buer. Dantalion. Leraje. The ancient King knew them all, and bound each of those fallen angels, nightmares of men and fears from the primordial void to his will. Yet, demons are corrupters from their nature- they tempt and taunt, whisper and wriggle. They look honest, willing to serve- but it is just a mask. Each of those beings is a monster given birth from the taint of human sin, shaped by fear and thought into a a terrible form. Common men quickly fall prey to the tricks of Hell and become its slaves- the Inferno would take their souls and whisper them their worst nightmares until the end of times. Hell was never meant to serve- that is the meaning of Heaven. Angels serves. Demons rule.

Only those who are wise can withstand the demonic manipulations. Only they can see through the tricks and lies demons use in order to manipulate their binder. In order to be wise, one must be one with his Sin- for Sins are the Keys of Hell. Deny them, and the demons would unlock the door and pull you kicking and screaming to your endless doom. Hold it tightly, and you could command the legions of Inferno as your own.

At least, that is the faith of the group called the Heirs of the Crown. For them, Sin is only a natural part of being human. Even the Original Sin was not a taint upon mankind as religion wants you to believe- the Fruit simply made you aware that you were committing a sin, and feel ashamed for doing so. Look on the beasts- they kill and fuck and betray each other, but they do not sin. Only humans do- and that is because they are aware. Become one with your own Vice, and demons would lose their power upon you. Be righteous, and you'll fall the Abyss the first moment you'll look down.

While the Heirs belong to a dark faith, they are bad people- well, not necessary. Of course some of them are evil, but do too much evil for its own sake and demons would devour your soul before you could even notice. It is ok to let your Sins run wild- but you can't let them degenerate your soul. You need to accept them so you could channel them the right way. It is not because they seek moral high ground or because they follow some stupid human law. It is just that if you wish to survive dealing with demons, you must do so. anything else would end up with your eternal damnation.

The Heirs of the Crown follow their origin up to the Dark Ages, from a small cult named simply as the Circle of Red. The founders of the group has found an ancient book forsaken by the Bible- one which describes the demons the legendary King Solomon has bound. Yet, the book was fractured, and only 4 demons were described on the decayed leather together with some broken incantations. It took them years of experimentation in order to analyze the texts and translate the rituals from ancient Hebrew. Sometimes, the rituals failed. On others, the casters spoke terrible prophesies and saw horrible visions. The most catastrophic results happened when such a demon was summoned- only to take over the caster and make him into a meat puppet, which forced the Circle to bring their former member down.

Yet that was the price they wished to pay in order to rule Hell. Each of those failed sorcerers came from the lowest bottom of the social ladder- orphans, slaves, escaped criminals. The Church has forsaken them, letting them to rot in the streets. They, together with heretics who were outlawed because they had a different view of the world, had to bind together- and eventually they came to a certain understanding. If God does not wish them in his light, than they shall turn to the darkness- but not as slaves. As rulers.

After their years long research, they have finally came to a breakthrough- one of their members has managed to summon Vassago, one of the least evil demons of Hell. The 3rd Seal has gave the location of a secondary book which detailed methods to how to protect yourself from demonic manipulations. Later, they called upon Botis who told them about other pages of the original book. Purson found for them Seals which were lost since the fall of the Temple. Ronove translated them texts in dead languages. Foras told them how they could manipulate demons to their will more efficiently. Each Seal they discovered has granted them more power, and allowed them new ways to use their former understandings. Sure, many of them were fallen to demons during those times and others were killed by the Church- but the research moved on until, finally, they found the most important Seal of all- Asmodai.

Binding the greatest among the Kings of Hell was no easy task. A dozen of members has tried to summon him and failed, either dying on the spot or becoming a vessel for the the dark spirit's rage and spite. The Circle was on the verge of giving up their dream to rule Hell as their own, when a 13th summoner volunteered to bind the demon- he was the youngest in the Circle who joined only a few months before, yet unlike the rest he has fully embraced the teachings of Solomon. By accepting his Vice, he was able to open the gate. By channeling it away from evil, the demon couldn't take over him. He wasn't possessed by the demon- he became the demon, and devoured him whole as he burned the sign of Asmodai into his own flesh.

After taking over Asmodai, the group renamed itself into the Heirs of the Crown- both a as sign of respect to Solomon and for forcing Asmodai to give them the Mantle of Hell and the right to command demons as long as they embrace their sins. For many years they operated in secret, hiding mostly in the west of Europe. Yet, now the Spanish Inquisition was established by monarchs of Spain. They seek out heretics and traitors to the Christian Faith and execute anyone who stand in their way. The "holy soldiers" of the Innocents (or the Black Cabal, as they are known among the "heretics") hunts them down together with the Jews, the Muslims and the witches. While they have survived persecutions before, the Cabal is more powerful then any other, and they are loosing more and more members in each day which passes. While many would have die in the flames, some would survive- the knowledge they gathered would be complied into the book known as the Lesser Keys of Solomon, and those who escaped Spain and ran to the Muslim lands may have found sanctuary. Eventually, the Heirs would re-establish themselves. At least, that's what they hope for.

Status
0- you have learned the ways of demons and bound them to your will. You may spend Merit points on the Mantle of Hell Endowment
000- Your research have allowed you to understand the ways of demons in order to banish lesser evils by accepting your own. Get 3 dot in Supernatural Lore- Demons
00000- your long time with the demons has changed the way your soul is built, or maybe you were always that way, and you have just had to learn how to "let it out". Once per Chapter, when the hunter fulfill her Vice she may decide to treat it as fulfilling her Virtue. Doing so does not stop her from fulfilling her Virtue in the same Chapter and gain the benefits she should gain.

Endowment- Mantle of Hell (0-00000)
The warlocks who hold the Keys of Hell must first gain the respect of the demons they rule upon. First, each of the members has an Infernal Rank equal to half of the hunter's dots in the Endowment rounded up for cases of commanding and/or harming Infernal Demons. While that ability allows the enter to deal with Lesser Demons, the more powerful beings of Hell need to be dealt with respect, fear and shamelessness.

The Mantle of Hell allows the hunter to summon certain demons, called the 72 Solomonic Seals (or the Goetic Demons. Or the 72 Demons of Ars Goetia. They have a lot of names). Each dot represent a Title of demons which the warlock can command and bind to his own flesh by drawing one of the Seals of Ars Goetia on his own skin (some members actually tattoo those Seals in order to save time- but if there is a mistake in the tattoos the results may be dangerous, and are much harder to fix in case you survive). The Titles are divided by power level, when King is the highest and Count is the lowest. When accessing a new Title level, the hunter get access to a wide range of powers, represented as the demons. When conducting the ritual, the summoner choose a certain demon which he wish to bind to his own flesh, and if the ritual works he gains the Dread Power tied to the Seal (which is equal to the demon's Title). The hunter can have only one such demon bound to his body at a time, and to do so he must roll [Occult]+[Mantle]:Dramatic Failure: You have lost control over the demon, and it runs wild in your skin. The demons rules you for 10-Willpower points hours, in which it may do as it please while the hunter can only watch with terror. When the demon leaves, the hunter suffer from one level of Lethal Damage per dot in the Mantle as the powers of Hell rip the demon from your soul.Failure: You have drawn the demon, yet failed to hold it- and you can't play with fire without getting burned. You suffer one level of Bashing Damage per dot in the MantleSuccess: You have gained control over the demon and made yourself into its master. You gain access to the demon's Dread Power for a number of hours equal to your Willpower dots. You can also terminate the possession at every given moment by expanding a Willpower pointExceptional Success: same as regular success, only twice as long.

Those demons are not the only ones, of course.They are simple the demons the Heirs know about. Rumors about other demons bound by Solomon- like Amaymon or Pruflase- are heard among the members of the Heirs, and finding their Seals and binding them could allow a member to gain the respect of his friends- and maybe even be seen as Solomon's True Heir.

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well, I'm not sure how the Awakened would react in Salem- most of the Dark Era as written is focused around the hunters, after all. The Heirs, however, don't really care about the paranoia itself- they don't hunt demons out of desire to protect humanity. They are selfish people, who are usually forsaken by society. They hunt demons because they draw demons, and they are drawn to demons because they hunt demons. It is an endless cycle. While you could see an Heir who seeks to stop the Witch Trails, either out of fear of the stake or out of desire to take over this hell, you will also see Heirs who try to spread the paranoia in order to live in their sins (and use that paranoia against their enemies). Purity out of corruption is their motto, after all- and I think that unlike the time of the Inquisition, in which they were seen as heretics and defilers, in Salem they would play in the gray lines and become a real conspiracy which frame others for the crimes they did. They have learned from their experience in Spain, after all.

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About the Scarlet Watch- the fact is that the group is old, older than Salem. Because of that, I see no problem with them operating during the Spanish Inquisition and before it. Maybe during that time, they are even still a Conspiracy (need to check the dates). Anyway, if the Heirs survive until Salem is for the ST to decide- and if they do, you can be sure demons would crawl in the streets of the city. Not only that witches and vampires draw them (the first from Witch Finders, the second the strixs and Wicked Dead), but all the paranoia would feed those creatures, allowing them to bloat on fear and hate. Plus, during that time, the Heirs would again be seen on the side of witches- although they may have a different angle in the situation.

How would you put Awakened in this setting then? Maybe Salem is place of fight of vampires versus mages over influences, with hungry dead and power obsession man clash over the village? Or just they are entwined in neighbor territory and "Witch Trials" made their influences exposed and killed people with them. And then Heirs just want to make this mess in to order and not let demon to feed on all this hate and paranoia of Witch Trials.

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The Innocents are a future Slashing Conspiracy I'm going to make- a dark mirror to the MM, who represent the Inquisition and claim to serve God by killing heretics- although actually they have a much darker agenda, and most have no faith in God (inspired by the fiction from Slashers). They are meant to show the other side of the coin in the Era, where the heretics who deal with demons are actually the nice guys while those who look like good guys are monsters in human skin.

About the Scarlet Watch- the fact is that the group is old, older than Salem. Because of that, I see no problem with them operating during the Spanish Inquisition and before it. Maybe during that time, they are even still a Conspiracy (need to check the dates). Anyway, if the Heirs survive until Salem is for the ST to decide- and if they do, you can be sure demons would crawl in the streets of the city. Not only that witches and vampires draw them (the first from Witch Finders, the second the strixs and Wicked Dead), but all the paranoia would feed those creatures, allowing them to bloat on fear and hate. Plus, during that time, the Heirs would again be seen on the side of witches- although they may have a different angle in the situation.

EDIT- also, if you use them in Salem, you need to take to account the fact that the Heirs would interact with the Knights of St George, who also have Goetic powers and theme, who may or may not come from the same source. While you don't have to make the 72 Demons the same as the 72 Angels, the fact is that some Knights may feel uncomfortable around the Heirs, or see them as a threat. Add to that the fact that the Knights hide their true nature while the Heirs show it with pride, and the later would have to wonder why does the Court hunts them more fiercely then even the Inquisition did.

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I love this Conspiracy idea - I think it's one of best of yours. LostLight. I was going what a 72 Goetia Seals are, but you made it clear in the last post it's demons in World of Darkness way - "ST is deciding". Myself, I would still go with Inferno corrupted Astral Goetia - to make it even more thematically connected to King Solomon and it's roots in Mastigos Path.

Also, question - what are Innocents? They are not children in the WoD as the mini-gameline called, yes?

And last thing - I plan to run maybe a Salem Witch Trials with Dark Eras. How could you put the Heirs of the Crown in this setting, with the Scarlet Watch and vampires? I was thinking about only slight subversion - that vampires are part, not whole, of Salem's problems. Maybe demons are other part of equation? Maybe demons made thing so intereting to vampires in the first place?

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And What About the Vigil?
When one looks on the history, faith and acts of the Heirs, he may wonder how those people could be called as "hunters". Sure, they are interested in the occult world, but the fact is that they traffic with demons and seek personal gain. What do they do to justify themselves as the protectors of humanity? How do they carry the Vigil?

The answer is that they don't see themselves as hunters- yet, they are.

During the Inquisition, being an hunter is more than killing monsters- it's about choosing sides. There are those who work for the Faith, and those who act against it. No gray in the middle. The Innocents, with all of their terrible flaws, are the ones who carry the Faith- they burn witches and hang heretics. Anyone they claim to be guilty is guilty, and all should bow their head before them and serve the Faith. The Heirs of the Crown, however, are heretics- they are agents of corruption who works against the Faith. If Salem is about blurring the lines, the Inquisition is about harsh separations, and as such they stand on the side of darkness. They work with monsters, and are hunted down together with them.

However, by their very nature, the Heirs are hunters. The very core of their belief is that in order to become "greater" than who they are, they must transcend their sins and take their soul back from Hell. This is a daily struggle- for there are temptations everywhere, with demons whispering in the ears of others to make them fall to the Great Below. In order to purify themselves, they must sin- until eventually, they could remove that temptation once and for all.

For that reason, the Heirs find themselves fighting demons- mostly Lesser Demons, but they have met with the other types once in a while. Demons try to corrupt humanity, and they feed upon sin. By committing sins, they draw those demons toward them- who then try to corrupt them. As a test for their skills, the Heirs bind, banish or destroy those demons. Doing so is a sign that they are in the path toward enlightenment, and so they sin again, only to draw more demons, banish them, and so on and so on.

In short, the way the Heirs act is like a magnet for demons- which forces them to fight not only their inner demons, but external ones. Even if an Heir doesn't actively search for Possessed people or infernalists just to show their skill and power over the Infernal Legions (which they do- after all, this is the quickest level to gain the respect of both their fellow hunters and their demons), those demons would eventually come to them. Besides, demon cults have the tendency to hunt down each other- and considering the secret knowledge the group has gathered, they are a prime target to many corrupted organizations who seek after demonic rites and dark rituals.. like the Black Cabal.

Never judge a book by its cover- that's the truth of the Heirs.

And the Innocents

Demons of Our Own Creation
So- who are the 72 demons of Goetia?

After all, there are many demons in the big World of Darkness. Some demons come from Hell, possess the living and lure them toward eternal damnation of sin and vice. Other demons seek after Hell, wishing escape from the divine mechanism to which they were enslaved. There are also demons created from the dreams and lusts of mankind who are even called as "Goetia" by arcane scholars, or demons who hunt the Shadow of the world and wish to wound its very flesh, or demons who descend from the darkness between the stars and disrupt the very nature of reality. Many of those demons carry the names of the 72, and some may even claim to be bound by Solomon and serve and his Temple.

Because of that, people may feel themselves compelled to ask who are those "demons"? Are they 72 Archdemons from Inferno who were bound by one of the strongest mages who ever lived in this world? Maybe they are 72 Covers created by the Machine, pieces of data to which the Heirs has hacked using a weird occult matrix? Maybe they are the human manifestation of sin, found deep in the Astral? Incarnations of the Maeljin? Abyssal horrors who turn the concept of Sin upon itself?

Any of those explanations could work- after all, while the Heirs seem to have a big focus on the Infernal, their targets and powers could come from everywhere. No one likes Hell, after all- even its own demons.

In short, there is no one among the Heirs who even knows for sure to which "infernal legion" the 72 belong, or if they even exist and not just the interpenetration of the human mind to its own sins...

of course, there is a worse option.

Maybe those 72 Faceless beings are not demons at all.

They could always be angels.

Stereotypes:Lucifuge-"oh, we fought them for many years. They claim us to be evil infernalists who spread corruption and strength hell. Now, they beg for our help as the Innocents knock on their door. If our situation wasn't so dear, I may have found that situation amusing"Cheiron Group-"The Black Cabal calls us heretics, while they work with those monsters! Like that calling themselves "Innocents" wasn't hypocritical enough, they have joined hands with those freaks. That shows you that if you have enough money, even Mother Church would become a prostituted"Scarlet Watch-"While we have usually kept walking on separate paths, our ways has crossed from time to time our ways met- especially when we dealt the birds of Hell and devil worshiping bloodsuckers. I hope they would remember those times when the Inquisition would come here"Ascending Ones-"they are full of sins, just like us, and they are hunted like heretics, like us. Yet, they dare to call us "Iblis worshipers" and spit where we walk. Some may help you escape, other would lock their doors and let you burn. Judge on individual basis"

We all have our demons- but I command mine to do as I wish. Can you say the same?

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Not bad. Still, I would add some mechanic benefit to each demon, like a +2 to Persuasion or the merit Striking Looks from Beleth. Also, I feel weird that each demon offer pretty much the same amount of power to the binder, regardless their infernal rank.
Most important, the Conspiracy needs a long term goal, plus a particular, supernatural type of enemy (Indebteds and Possesed ftom Inferno?).

First- like the usual, the Endowments are a quick and dirty style, because I don't have a lot of time to invest in them (the fact that I took the time and gave each demon a special Dread Power is more than I usually do). Second, the power level of the Dread Power is decided by the Demon's rank, not the hunter's Mantle. A Count is always a Count, and would only give a 1 dot benefit of its Dread Power because that is all I could do- the fact that the hunter can summon Kings doesn't make the Count stronger. Third, they do have a special enemy- demons, all kinds of demons. I am going to write a sidebar about the subject later- but let's say that if it steals souls, makes bargains and/or feeds upon sins, the Heirs would take it down.

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Not bad. Still, I would add some mechanic benefit to each demon, like a +2 to Persuasion or the merit Striking Looks from Beleth. Also, I feel weird that each demon offer pretty much the same amount of power to the binder, regardless their infernal rank.
Most important, the Conspiracy needs a long term goal, plus a particular, supernatural type of enemy (Indebteds and Possesed ftom Inferno?).